Reevy Mill Dam, 14/09/07

Three new recent volunteer recruits were a massive help on Friday. Thanks guys! This site used to provide power for a water wheel for a now long gone mill. Now it is a little oasis in the middle of Buttershaw with a large pond which is home to a small family of coots.

It is also where the adjacent school's litter all blows and once again we removed bags and bags of it which the Clean Team from the council kindly took away. Boys like to fish in the pond and the ones we have spoken to seem to bemoan the litter and have a healthy respect for the site. One problem though is that a lot of fishing wire is left on site causing a hazard to wildlife. One teenager told us of a magpie he had saved the life of which had become completely entangled in it.

There was also a lot of mowing and scything to be done to maintain the areas of wildflower meadow. The cut grass is removed so that the fertility of the soil doesn't increase. This gives the wildflowers an advantage by discouraging the grass.

Balsam bashing & knotweed... gnashing? Boars Well, 10 Aug '07

Only a handfull of people joined the fight on Friday. Our BCEP trainee division was down from five to just two committed men and volunteer numbers were mysteriously low. However this elite band made huge dents in the Japanese knotweed and Himalayan balsam. I dunno! These foreigners! Coming over here, taking all our land and spreading their seed... Well, of course we don't try and eradicate them just 'cos they're foreign but because nothing on these shores has evolved around these plants so they are just not on the menu. With no natural control there is only us to stem their advance. Today, the discovery that pulled Himalayan Balsam makes for great javelins meant we were really on our guard. From the dense cover of the forests of balsam, huge, long stems were shooting past our ears.

BTW, message to volunteers today: Yes, the exploding seed heads of Himalyan Balsam are fun but this is considered collaboration with the enemy. I only exploded one. And it was a controlled demonstration event.

Apple Juice! Orchard, Wedn 8 Aug, 07

An open day at our West Bowling Community Orchard saw plenty of activity. A group of teenagers from the YMCA (BEES is part of YMCA Bradford) got stuck into re-woodchipping the path and a few participated in craft activities. We made bottle cap shakers and decorated them. We also helped a couple of the teenagers to produce drinks-can alcohol-stoves which was a big achievement. Once the stoves were finished they boiled a kettle over one and enjoyed a well earned cup of coffee. Lunch was a BBQ with BEES' charcoal that we made last Summer. The veggie burgers and sausages were cause for much protestation until the teenagers actually tasted them and they seemed to be converted!

The most exciting thing about the day was the inaugral outing of BEES' new apple press. It crushes apples then squeezes them so that most of the juice flows into a container. It's a fantastic olde-worldey machine and I'm sure it will have a nickname soon enough. This was a practice run for our bigger apple day event on Sat 13th October. Our apples will be ripe by then so this time round we bought in some boxes of English apples and made litres and litres of sweet and refreshing apple juice. It was very popular with our visitors from the West Bowling Youth Initiative. Come along to Apple Day in October and you'll be able to pick your own apple juice!

Boars Well Nature Reserve

We manage a long tract of land known as Boars Well. It was at this site, long ago, where the incident occurred that gave the Bradford Coat of Arm's it's tongueless Boars Head. A bounty had been put on the head of a boar that had been terrorising the peace loving folk of little Bradford village. One man who came across the boar drinking at the well on this site killed it, cut off it's tongue and set off for the town hall to claim his bounty. Another man who had been watching this, let the first man leave then cut off the boars head, put it on his cart and took it double-speed to the town hall. When he got there he couldn't explain why the head was tongueless until the real boar-killer turned up and claimed the bounty that was rightfully his!

On Friday we were eradicating different pests: Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed. Both these invasive species left unchecked would take over the entire site, crowding out our native species and leading to a decline in biodiversity along the food chain. Because they don't originate from these shores there is very little natural control because the wildlife hasn't evolved to eat them. The elephant hawk-moth has been found to eat himalayan balsam. They do their best, bless 'em but really we are the only thing between these invasive species and a blanket mono-culture of our whole island.

The knotweed grows massive blocking out all light beneath for the gentler folk of the plant world. One patch on our site was literally a forest. We cut the knotweed down in swathes and the council will spray the remaining stalks to really give us the advantage. Luckily himalayan balsam is easily plucked from the ground, roots and all but it is horrendously abundant.

Luckily we had an army of volunteers to join the fight. There were 6 new short term European volunteers, a handfull of people from the student's union, our BCEP trainee division and the usual Friday crew.

Urban Nature Reserve

Last Friday we cleared the already trodden paths of weeds and laid down woodchip. This was on a nature reserve that we manage, tucked away at the back of the Laisteridge Lane University of Bradford Campus.

The most exciting thing for me was when I hit stone under the soil with my fork along a few metres of the path. It was buried under a thick mulch of woodland matter but I scraped it back and voila!: there was one ready made section paved with stone! I have yet to find the extent of it but it seems quite wide. It could even turn out to be a sort of patio rather than just a narrow path. More digging next time!

The site has been through different uses. Long ago it was farmed and before we started managing it as a nature reserve it had been run as a garden. This has sparked my interest in it's history and I will try and find out more.

The Robins on the site are always completely unflustered by our presence. One landed at my feet as I was talking. It paused a while and then hopped into the undergrowth. We also saw a red damselfly and an azure blue damselfly. We can identify these after we invited an expert down to our open day last week. Children who turned up from the local community had a great time. One family was literally the nearest flat which was part of the university halls of residence. They particularly seemed to enjoy the pond dipping and they also made bird feeders and lacewing hotels. They didn't want to touch the huge and rather alien looking dragonfly nymphs though!

Pond Platform part 2.

On Friday we finished off the dipping platform in fantastic weather. It was hard work but we are really pleased with the results. The platform juts out into the pond so that the edge is already in quite deep water. Once we stopped concentrating on work and began to look into the water at the edge of the platform we were immediately amazed at the amount of extra wildlife activity you can see. Newts pop up regularly to grab air and there are loads of pond snails which crawl over the pond weed. Previously, children had to scoop the snails out with nets to see them at which point the creatures would hide in their shells and stay there. Now you can see them in the clear water as they move about.

We were helped by University of Bradford students who were taking part in national volunteers week. They got loads of vegetation cleared so that access to the wooded area is massively improved. Hope to see you next week too, guys! For the second week running the Telegraph and Argus photographed our efforts. If anyone spots us in the paper, please let us know and keep us a copy!

Urban Nature Reserve pond platform pt.1

Great task yesterday! We embarked on a dipping platform at the BEES Urban Nature Reserve on the Laisteridge Lane University Campus. We got 6 solid posts in ready to take the joists and tread boards. We hope to finish it next week and the result will enable children to pond dip more safely. We saw newts which I always find exciting!

Others worked at eradicating the invasive species Giant Hogweed from the site. Due to our efforts in the past, the amount coming up this year has been greatly reduced.

The press turned up to photograph the work going on and I'll be rushing out to see ourselves in the T&A today!

I have recently been on a bushcraft course and Guille, from Spain on a European volunteer scheme requested a fire by friction tutorial. We made a bow drill set and back at home, managed to produce fire with it!

Blossom Day

This was a great event, but it did feel a bit like an episode of Little Britain at times. Why?

1. No Blossom - Blossom is supposed be at it's best at this time of year, but with the warm April it was all mostly gone by now.

2. The Great British Weather - by the time I got there it was getting colder and starting the rain.

Still, the BBQ was hot and the food and the company were great - what more could you ask for (Blossom and sun aside)?

The orchard is looking great and with the addition of extra space, permenant covered areas, and growing areas for other vegetables, it's really developing well.

Call that art!

The volunteers will be out in force this Sunday at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where they will be making little baby herons out of recycled materials.

Should be fun, and it'll give people a chance to see the Andy Goldsworthy exhibits that are there at the moment.

Fri 9th March, Hedgelaying, Idle

On the outskirts of some woods in Idle we set to work on laying a hedge of mainly hawthorn trees. With some trees half dead already it was tricky business but everyone was improving their skills and we created some fine pleachers (this is what you call the bit of the tree you expose when you cut most of the way through it and then bend it over). It was tiring work but it felt very creative as some volunteers commented and the setting was beautiful. The result was a formidable barrier to keep the horses in the field. The previous week at the same place we saw a couple of woodpeckers after hearing therm first.

Tree planting, Onion Farm, Burley

Yesterday we helped Forest of Bradford plant a hedgerow at Onion Farm in Burley. Trees included hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel and Viburnum opulus (guelder rose). We notch planted, staked and guarded 100's of trees for what will be a stockproof hedge in a few years. The weather was drizzly but it wouldn't have felt like the Christmas task without it! Our own Nik "Mears" fetched the brew kit and got the Kelly Kettle fire going despite the rain. The brews were much appreciated all round. And then it was off to the pub with the first round kindly financed by the farm owner. A few more drinks in Bradford rounded off a fine day's work.

Guardhouse Primary School wildflower meadow

We scythed and raked and raked and scythed until the wildflower meadow was levelled ready to let it regenerate next year. Plantain was removed in a full scale attack to prevent it from dominating the wildflowers. Reports from the teachers indicate that the wildflowers came up in abundance in the Summer which is good news. We are also told the pupils of the school have been busy using the planted beds which are well taken care of by "The Environment Club". We helped them by doing a bit of weeding.

Apple Day

The weather was fine and the community orchard was buzzing for the annual apple day today.

It was a vey enjoyable day! My apple was identified (I say mine, my neighbour actually donated it, good of them). It was a massive Howgate Wonder. The book, that the very knowledgable lady had, said it was only of fair quality but the ones on sale there were described as sweet and pleasant which I prefer. I ate apple quish. It was so good I nearly had another helping but then I saw the puddings and chose two of them which were both outstanding. I also sampled some gorgeous, sweet apples.

Boar's Well UNR last week

Ok, so this is a little late (a week!), and I didn't actually arrive until 30 mins before we packed up, but there are still a few things to report.

One of the big tasks was to clear the pond/spring area from reeds that have grown up and nearly filled the space. It was wet, mucky work! (of course only for 20 mins for me, but a long day for others) There was a huge pile of reeds left by the end, that would have had to be cleared away the next day. They have to stay near the water for a while so that any creatures that get pulled out with them can crawl back into the water.

Other volunteers tackled overgrown paths; some even had the scythes out. There was also the remains of a pretty large looking tree that had to be sawn into smaller pieces - someone had been busy.(as usual not me!)

UNR - Urban Nature Reserve!

feedback re schools work

It would be really useful to have some general feedback about volunteers' experiences and thoughts about project work in schools - the Eschools project, other voluntary work you have done and future opportunities you would like us to create.
We are in the process of putting together a funding bid and your feedback, as potential users of the service we will create will help with the funding application.
The project we hope to deliver will build on our experiences of eschools.
Did you enjoy working in schools? with the children or because it offers chance for habitat creation? Is there any specific training that you think would be good to support volunteers in this sort of work? any other comments

Blog any thoughts, or contact the office.
Thanks
julia

BEES Nature Reserve

BEES Conservation Volunteers
BEES Urban Nature Reserve - the good and the bad.

The nature reserve is full of life, though it looks a bit unloved at the moment. I think the increase of bindwind might be due to lack of management around the pond edges, and it would be nice not to be tickled by nettles when sitting on the bench. The bog bean in the top pond seems to have increased massively, and we will probably need to remove some this autumn before the pond becomes a marsh. The marsh cinque foil from Howard's garden is in flower and looks lovely - as do the lilies. We saw a brown hawker dragonfly in flight and one on a leaf over the pond. Although we could not see the larval case we think this had just emerged as it was in the same position for a couple of hours. Brown Hawkers should be emerging for the next coupl eof weeks. Loads of damselflies and birds drinking from the ponds.
However not all is rosy. As some people will know the university has been trying to sell the land adjacent and including some of the reserve. The offer they are accepting will not tolerate a sitting tenant so our boundaries are threatened. The plan is to withdraw the reserve back to the old medlar tree, with the potential of officially including the area where we are struggling to control the giant hogweed. The university were not willing to preserve the reserve in it's current shape as the sale of the land is earmarked to fund specific projects (not sure what but a bit ironic if it's anything to do with their eco- versity status)so wanted to maximise their income. Apart from losing the ares of wild flowers we will also lose the only significant bit of land, however small, away from the pond which will affect our educational work with groups. The area over the fence has been fairly secluded over recent years which has created good nesting zone. A new management plan will have to be devised and funding sought to enable us to deliver the changes. sorry i wasn't able to excert more influnce on the university. They have said they will send be plans with the new boundary, and give bees number to the developers. Then we need to keep our eyes open for the planning application.

Charcoal Update

BEES Conservation Volunteers
charcoal update
Keen to try and manufacture more drawing charcoal we finished loading the kilns on friday evening, and in an attempt to introduce some time efficiencies into thhis labour intensive process, we thought it would be good to light the kilns then, and close down in the morning. Maybe it was the wind - or lack of it - or a difference in the way the air sinks in the evening (well about 10pm once we had prepared our willow sticks in their bake bean cans) but the valley seemed to be filled with smoke within minutes. Hope we didn't spoli anyone's evening! Jack and Annie helped out again - initally thinking it would be a good opportunity to spot wildlife but probably more motivated by the excuse for a late night.
The kilns still need unloading - jonathan did a bit on sunday morning but i opted out. We have enough timber left for one more burn at most. I have sold some of the charcoal - £5 a bag of more or less 5Kg.

Barbecue 9th July!

Another batch of charcoal turned out well today. The artist's charcoal experiment was a success and plans are afoot to produce on a larger scale.

And to celebrate this wonder of traditonal industry a barbecue is planned for the 9th July, 3.30pm. This will be at the Community Orchard in West Bowling http://www.civictrust.org.uk/regeneration/includes/Orchard.pdf The World Cup Final is at 7pm that day so it may be off to the pub around this time for those who are interested. Come on England! Everyone connected to BEEs (and friends) are welcome. BYO drink and food for the barbie. A few things may be provided. Please let me know if you want to make something to share around, that would be great! Cover will be available for any light rain showers. Downpours will be good for the orchard and we can all marvel at nature and stuff! Or go to the pub or someone's place. Anyone volunteer their place as a backup?

Come along for a taste of our hard work!

Thanks to Annie and Jack, the masked charcoal makers from the West, who helped out today.

Black Gold!

The 2nd burn completed, the kilns were opened on Friday and inside.... black gold! Bags and bags of it.

Everyone seemed to have a good time. Treats this time were provided by Chris. His fresh pineapple chunks went down well. Paul (the Russian-German) chopped wood tirelessly but for the second time the axe he used couldn't match his incredible strength. Paul 2, axe handles nil.

After emptying the charcoal into bags we could have been mistaken for a group of miners fresh from the pits. Either that or we could have been a hippy commune in the woods as the men from the golf club commented. They kindly used their pick-up to take our black gold down the hill to our minibus so we'll let them off.

We restacked the kilns ready for another burn this Sunday and it looks like the production line has begun. I made some artists' charcoal makers fashioned from beer cans slotted inside cat food tins (patent pending) stuffed full of bark-stripped twigs. This experiment was placed amongst the wood in the kilns and I'm excited to see if it will work when they are next emptied.

Why we couldn't turn wood to charcoal

Sorry about the failure last week - yes i don't think we let enough oxygen into the kilns so the fires went out...the theory is that the oxygen is limited so that not all the carbon turns to carbon dioxide...but there's no smouldering without oxygen (as the saying goes). anyway i've checked it out and fingers crossed we should do better tomorrow...if not i will abandon my plans to live in the woods. Will try and post some more techical info, or links to other website once i've found some.